Archive for May, 2008

DOHA, Qatar – Leaving Damascus and Syria for Sri Lanka we jetted southeast heading for the Arabian Gulf. Our transition from Damascus to Doha was bizzare. Qatar, a country with the highest GDP in the Arab world, has been transformed since vast oil fields were discovered there in the 1940s. Walk around Doha in today’s photo gallery.

QUNEITRA, Syria –Sixty kilometers southwest of Damascus lies the remains of the once prosperous town of Quneitra. Destroyed by the Israeli military during Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, Syria has left the rubble intact as a reminder to all of Israel’s military ferocity. See the ghost town of Quneitra in today’s photo gallery.

DAMASCUS, Syria – One of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, Damascus still has a vibrant buzz. Much of the interesting sights are contained inside the Old City encircled by a massive wall. See the heart of the old city, the Umayyad Mosque, one of the most impressive religious sites we’ve encountered so far and more in today’s photo gallery.

QUSAYBAH, Syria – Though our visit was short, we witnessed the transformation of Lebanon in just seven days. On our taxi ride out of Beruit back to Syria, massive posters could already be seen, sporting images of the incoming president Michel Suleiman, a former Lebanese Army General, all over the city and countryside. Head back to Syria in today’s photo gallery.

BERUIT, Lebanon – On the heels of a fresh power-sharing agreement and the election of a new president, the Lebanese begin a stretch of celebrating their new found peace. See more of the celebration here…

An outsider would surely see this as a ridiculous proposition: being a minute late meant a missed train to Italy’s culinary capital Bologna. But on the inside of those minutes to spare was a chance to satisfy a long-standing craving: a nice, spicy curry.

Despite the long list of stunning tastes and meals that we’ve been lucky to try, nothing ever hits the spot for me like a good meal of rice and curry – typical meals from my home country of Sri Lanka.

Fine and delicate food was good, but real food, my parents taught me, should be an assault on your tastes buds: the spicier the better.

And that’s why I was running.

An amusing crossing of cultures, Bengalis, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankans have managed to make a sizeable community in Italy’s major cities. Just three years before, I heard my native tongue Sinhalese spoken on the streets of Florence, Italy. A mental note stuck in my head – next time you’re there – ask around. (more…)

BAALBEK, Lebanon – Lebanon is as diverse a country as they come and small enough (about the size of Connecticut) that it’s possible to tackle multiple scenes in one day. Rising early to squeeze in as many different sides of Lebanon as is humanly possible, we started our day with a visit to the ancient Roman ruins at Baalbek. See today’s photos in this photo gallery.

BERUIT, Lebanon – Lebanon is home to no less then 19 different ethnicities – its capital city, Beruit, is no different, and reflects a wide-ranging makeup of people. Today we stopped through some of the city’s different neighborhoods where we met these Palestinian kids at an arcade. Meet the people of Lebanon in today’s photo gallery.

, former Senior Multimedia Producer at The Boston Globe, has always loved telling a great story. Combining his eye for visual story telling and his technical background in computer science at North Carolina State University, Thushan has reported on business, sports and travel for The Globe. You can find his site here.

, graduated with a degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His thesis research focused on the intersection of race and music in Northeastern Brazil. He worked previously as A&R and Production Coordinator for Putumayo World Music, an international music record label based in New York City. You can find his site here.